Recurring power outages are crippling a small Queensland community, with residents losing access to their water and toilets, life-saving health equipment, and even robbing one woman of her wish to die at home.
Key points:
- The small Queensland community of Curra has been experiencing ongoing power outages for decades
- A palliative care patient died in hospital this week, instead of at home, after a blackout
- Residents have started a petition and want to know when a decade-long plot for a substation will be built on
The small rural-residential suburb of Curra, in the Gympie region, has experienced a dozen blackouts in the past month.
Gympie palliative care nurse Sharon Woods said she had to transfer a dying patient to the hospital last week after the most recent outage.
She said they could not use medical equipment or air conditioning to keep the woman comfortable at home.
"I called Ergon [Energy] last Tuesday asking about the power supply, to be told, 'If they can't stay at home, then you're going to need to call emergency services,'" she said.
Ms Woods said the woman died in hospital on Thursday morning.
"Unfortunately, they did pass away in hospital. They were not able to get home," she said.
"We are all absolutely gutted here knowing that they were not able to fulfil their place of preference for the end of their life."
Ergon Energy said it did not comment on matters about individual customers due to privacy legislation.
It said five of the most recent blackouts in Curra were weather-related or caused by faults in the network.
'No showers, no toilets, no nothing'
Curra is a 10-minute drive northwest of Gympie with a growing population of more than 2,100 residents, according to 2021 Census data.
Resident Sue Baker said most people in the region did not just lose power during an outage. They also could not access water because their tanks were powered by electric pumps.
"We're on two and a half acres," she said.
"We're on tanks, so there's no water, no toilets, no showers, no nothing."
She and her husband, Ken Baker, have sleep apnoea and rely on CPAP machines (continuous positive airway pressure) to breathe.
Ms Baker said she felt residents were being kept in the dark about the cause of the ongoing issues despite many calls to the network supplier.
"This last outage was 12 hours and there was no storm and we had no CPAP machines," she said.
"And it was one of the hottest nights for summer so far."
Call to arms in Curra
This week, residents gathered at the Curra Country Club, hoping to have their concerns heard by Queensland energy bosses and the state government.
Concerned resident Celeste Rigby has drafted a parliamentary petition calling for action to fix constant blackouts and drops in network voltage, known as brownouts.
She said she felt distressed by the number of people in the area who were suffering, including an elderly couple who became trapped in electric chairs during an outage.
"They were in their electric recliners when the power went out and they were forced to sit in their waste basically," she said.
Rob Taylor has lived in the region for 35 years. He said power problems had been a running joke in Curra for decades.
"It's got worse. We're paying for a service we're not getting. I'm over it," Mr Taylor said.
"There's not enough people out here for them to care to spend the money on it."
Rachael Butler manages the Curra Country Club, which has become a refuge for people who don't have power.
She says it is not just the blackouts causing issues but constant brownouts — partial blackouts.
"The lights flicker, the air conditioning unit goes out, the generator doesn't kick in because it's a brownout," she said.
No timeline for substation project
A long-awaited substation planned for the growing suburb still has not come to fruition, more than a decade after land was purchased for the project.
Pieces of electrical infrastructure have been stored on the site on Curra Estate Road, which is less than 200 metres from the St Andrews housing estate.
The project has seen the development of a further 140 homes in the area in the past decade.
State Member for Gympie Tony Perrett said he had written to the Energy Minister Mick De Brenni twice this month about the issues.
"The situation is untenable," Mr Perrett said.
"The residents of Curra are from a low socio-demographic, and this is creating massive financial, as well as personal hardship.
"Fridges don't work, home water pumps don't work, communications don't work, toilets don't flush, critical or essential home health care equipment don't work."
Mr Perrett said he had yet to receive a response to the letters.
State government-owned electricity company Energy Queensland told the ABC the substation site was for "anticipated future development".
Resident Cae Walker said many people had moved to the area from cities without realising the issues being experienced.
"So many people are buying out here, so many people want to live out here, but the infrastructure can't keep up," Ms Walker said.
"It feels like we're stuck in the Middle Ages."
Network upgrade will take time
There has been conflicting information about a schedule of works planned for the Curra region.
Energy Minister Mick De Brenni said Ergon Energy field crews and contractors were out on the ground in Curra this week and had commenced work on a $1.5 million program of upgrades.
"I am advised Ergon expects this work to be completed by the end of March," Mr De Brenni said.
However, Ergon Energy told the ABC network upgrades were scheduled to be completed by mid-2024.
"The proposed project is aimed at improving the electricity supply reliability in the Curra region by adding an alternative feeder to the area while increasing network capacity in the area," a spokesperson said.
"In the interim, Ergon Energy crews will respond to any unplanned outages as early as practically possible to undertake the repair work and to restore the power supply in a safe manner."
Mr Perrett said the region needed to be prioritised.
"This matter must be resolved immediately, and assurances given to the community that they will not be subjected to rolling extended outages must be genuine," he said.